At CNN, a lot of panties dropped over Obama's latest The Big Empty speech.

ohmygodguyssoawesomenstuff...

Nancy Pelosi instructed reporters -- she actually barked this order at them -- "Do not identify [Filthy Filner] as my former colleague."

Even though they, you know, were.

Posted by: Ace at 04:14 PM | Comments (370)
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Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark...

Send entries — only one prediction per person — to intheloop@washpost.com, including your name, profession, mailing address, a phone number and T-shirt size (M, L or XL), in case you’re a winner.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:53 PM | Comments (228)
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If you read Allah's digest -- I didn't watch the speech; I have to rely on his digest -- it's pretty anodyne and... empty, of course. A few gestures of Racial Solidarity to sugar-coat the bitter pill that they're not going to do anything to George Zimmerman except continue to harass him.

There are little nods he gives to his base, which are forgivable, I suppose, as far as these things go -- he is, after all, simply a debased Chicago-machine politician; we can expect little better of him -- and then an extended riff that appears to designed to get as much wrong about stand your ground and self-defense generally as possible.

The point is, I'm not outraged by the speech; as usual, Obama doesn't really say anything enough to be outraged by. Usually he speaks in constructions that might be termed Notional Sentences, that is to say, assemblages of words which mirror the structure and form of a content- and idea-conveying sentence but which actually contain far less than the sum of their word-parts.

To the extent that his empty words have any meaning whatsoever, they contain three major elements:

1. Things which are true, but so obvious a kindergartener knows them. (We are each shaped by our experiences.)

2. Things which are not obvious, because they are also untrue. (Stand your ground laws give white people the right to shoot black people without cause.)

3. Heroic self-reference. (As did Jesus incarnate God the Father, so I Barack Hussein Obama, in a moment of apotheosis, incarnate the lamb Trayvon Martin.)

What I'm more outraged about is the reflexive need of the left to say all sorts of asinine things, like that Obama's saying things no president has said before, and, Serious You Guys, we're really getting into some next-level ish with this latest edict from DOTUS (the Deity of the United States).

On Twitter, I challenged Buzz Feed's Ben Smith, who had claimed Obama always spoke "incredibly" about race, to apprise me as to what specific insights and memorable sentences he recalls from any Obama utterance, whether on race or any other subject; as of this 6 o'clock deadline, he has yet to respond to me.

Almost as if it's unfair to ask for evidence of the Lightbringer's alleged eloquence and perspicacity. Almost like I'm being a party pooper, because everyone on the left knows Obama speaks in mush and babytalk, but you're supposed to praise him as if he were like unto a god anyhow, and I'm just being a dick by ruining their fun.

Here, Touré asserts that Obama really informed him about the black experience, which I sort of buy, given that Touré is a graduate of the tony whitebread Milton Academy and derives most of his knowledge about the black experience from Fat Boys videos.

Below, Melissa Harris Perry embarrasses herself for the cause; I'm sure Chris Matthews had a least several erections even hearing Obama say the word "black experience."

more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:06 PM | Comments (252)
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What are you going to say? Nothin', that's what. What is there to say?

This is just the socialists attempting to avoid the natural consequences of
the monstrosity they have birthed and called "the New America."

Ruling that the governor and DetroitÂ’s emergency manager violated the state constitution, an Ingham County Circuit judge ordered Friday that DetroitÂ’s federal bankruptcy filing be withdrawn.

“It’s absolutely needed,” said Judge Rosemary Aquilina, observing she hopes Gov. Rick Snyder “reads certain sections of the (Michigan) constitution and reconsiders his actions.”

...

“It’s cheating, sir, and it’s cheating good people who work,” the judge told assistant Attorney General Brian Devlin. “It’s also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy.”

Aquilina said she would make sure President Obama got a copy of her order.

“I know he’s watching this,” she said, predicting the president ultimately will have to take action to make sure existing pension commitments are honored.

She actually speaks of this nothing as if he were a god, or a child's conception of a god, such as Santa Claus, watching down upon us, ordering the universe.

They said if I voted for Romney, the country would be in the hands of a bizarre cult worshiping a ludicrous god, and they were right!

Is She... Right? AlextheChick says that the unions (I assume) may have inserted a provision into the state constitution which essentially puts state taxpayers on the hook for any promises city governments make:

This is the specific Michigan State Constitutional provision at play. Section 24 of the Michigan State Constitution reads as follows:

Section 24: Public Pension Plans and Retirement Systems, Obligation - The accrued financial benefits of each pension plan and retirement system of the state and its political subdivisions shall be a contractual obligation thereof which shall not be diminished or impaired thereby. Financial benefits, annual funding. Financial benefits arising on account of service rendered in each fiscal year shall be funded during that year and such funding shall not be used for financing unfunded accrued liabilities.

But that itself would be unconstitutional -- that would give Detroit voters the right to vote themselves the wealth of Michigan taxpayers.

Which seems to be precisely what the judge is saying -- Detroit spent money it didn't have, and spent itself into the grave, and now innocent taxpayers are required to make good on its contracts, despite not being parties to those contracts and despite not being under the sovereign political authority of Detroit.

Posted by: Ace at 12:33 PM | Comments (762)
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I think the answer is yes, and so does this guy.

There's a reason movies feel the same under the surface -- it's because they're structured exactly the same, under the surface.

Screenplay gurus like Syd Field and Robert McKee touted the essential virtues of three-act structure for decades. For Field and McKee, three-act structure is more of an organizing principle—a way of understanding the shape of a story. Field’s Story Paradigm, for example, has just a handful of general elements attached to broad page ranges.

Field and McKee offered the screenwriter’s equivalent of cooking tips from your grandmother—general tips and tricks to guide your process. Snyder[, author of a book that goes even further into codifying this structural cheat-sheet,] offers a detailed recipe with step-by-step instructions.

Each of the 15 beats is attached to a specific page number or set of pages. And Snyder makes it clear that each of these moments is a must-have in a well-structured screenplay. The page counts donÂ’t need to be followed strictly, Snyder says, but itÂ’s important to get the proportions fairly close.

[O]nce you know the formula, the seams begin to show. Movies all start to seem the same, and many scenes start to feel forced and arbitrary, like screenplay Mad Libs. Why does Kirk get dressed down for irresponsibility by Admiral Pike early in Star Trek Into Darkness? Because someone had to deliver the theme to the main character. Why does Gina Carano’s sidekick character defect to the villain’s team for no reason whatsoever almost exactly three-quarters of the way through Fast & Furious 6? Because it’s the all-is-lost moment, so everything needs to be in shambles for the heroes. Why does Gerard Butler’s character in Olympus Has Fallen suddenly call his wife after a climactic failed White House assault three-quarters of the way through? Because the second act always ends with a quiet moment of reflection—the dark night of the soul.

I really cannot take another movie whose Emotional Journey is "Young Man Must Finally Accept How Awesome He Is."

Of course, this could be due to the fact that I'm no longer a young man and no longer harbor secret fantasies of awesomeness. And yet I'm also not keen on the other possible plots, including "Young Man, Who Has the Most Talent of Anyone I've Ever Seen, Can Succeed When He Finally Learns to Control His Passions."

Or, "Young Man Who Is Really Good at Punching Things Must Learn That Punching Things Is Not All There Is To Life -- He Must Also Learn to Bang Hot Chicks, So That His Punches are Powered by Love, and Quality Ginch."

I think there was a time when people in Hollywood felt they had to bring something new and different to the table, even in a hackneyed formula genre picture, to justify their involvement in the project.

I don't think they feel bound to do that anymore. I think it's just by the numbers now.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (290)
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The left is ooohing of course, like Baby Just Said His First Word.

The racial condescension among liberals is staggering.

Obama said, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”

Only if he also did Total Absorption and blow and was thinking about doing heroin.

Obama added that he had experienced racial profiling personally: "There are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of being followed in a department store — that includes me."

During his years with the Choom Gang, I assume. I'm sure they never shoplifted.

Obama also said, “Reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. Once the jury's spoken, that's how our system works.”

Obama said he was "bouncing around" ideas with his staff on how to respond to the Zimmerman verdict, adding, "I think it is going to be important for us to do some soul searching."

Soul searched, I guess. Mind. Blown.

Pushing against Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, Obama stated, "If Trayvon Martin was of his age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?" both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different."

That doesn't even make any sense.

Posted by: Ace at 10:48 AM | Comments (632)
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A state Democratic party is threatening women into supporting a known sexual assaulter.

This takes it well out of the realm of One Man's Failings and puts it squarely into the category of Culture of Corruption and Cover-Up. Filner's molestations are his sins; but threatening women into supporting a known sexual threat is the California Democratic Party's.

Lori Saldana had been told by six different women that Filner had a groping/abuse problem. She told the state party about it. They decided to do nothing about it.

Then, she endorsed him for mayor. Why? Let's let her explain:

Party leaders, she said, made it clear that if people didn't support Filner they wouldn't receive their support again.

[Jess] Durfee, the former party chairman, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The San Diego Democratic Party has just met and decided they will continue supporting the serial abuser, despite his vague admissions and pseudoconfessions (such as announcing that both he and the staff he sexually abuses will be attending sexual harassment workshops, for tips and pointers, I suppose).

Meanwhile, the media, whose only failing is "not being able to resist a good story," continues heroically resisting this one.

So what we have here is an entire state political party threatening women into supporting a known groper, or, as the media terms it, "a Local Crime Story."

Why, they're treating Filner as if he killed babies, by which I mean they're ignoring the crime entirely.

Posted by: Ace at 09:41 AM | Comments (371)
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Sometimes you can go too far and wind up making the subject appear sympathetic. I know, I can't stop criticizing; I criticize for going too soft, and now I criticize for going too hard.

Except I'm not really criticizing, just noting the consequences of really going after one of these guys. And seriously, he did go after Spitzer.

I think a big reason it seems so brutal is that it's so unexpected and out-of-the-blue: Democrats don't get treated like this. Ever.

His first question was "When was the last time you violated the law you signed into law?" That was the ice-breaker, the easy slow-pitch to get things moving. And it actually got a little worse after that.

TV clown Steven Colbert was also a little tough on him, at the link.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:41 AM | Comments (367)
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Slow Friday in July.

Good news...the Ace of Spades Podcast should be back today. We went a little....long so Andy's got some editing to do.

One thing we talked about turns out to be today's JurnoList story (example 1, 2 and 3)...the McCain led surrender on Obama nominations is bad for the GOP.

We also have a discussion about the Marissa Alexander case and why it's not even remotely comparable to the George Zimmerman trial or something conservatives should get behind.

Other topics covered that may or may not make the cut....Liz Cheney runs for the Senate from her home-state of Virginia Wyoming and Detroit's bankruptcy/the folly of liberalism.

Oh and someone claiming to be "Ace" showed up. In reality though, who knows who it was.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:23 AM | Comments (507)
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Friday!!!!

The Colorado recall elections against two Democratic state senators who voted for the state's new gun control law is clear to proceed.

There is an amusing reminder at Popehat that trolls aren't very smart.

Liz Cheney's first week of candidacy probably wasn't everything she could have hoped for.

A few paragraphs down in this piece on Netflix's Emmy nominations, I was surprised at the statistic "average Netflix subscriber watches 87 minutes of television on the Web site per day, more than on any cable network." Seemed like a lot to me, although my brother summed it up: "So, two shows per day." Still seems like a lot of TV.

Treasury IG says it's going to be difficult for state Obamacare exchanges to open on schedule due to the need to, y'know, test the dang things before the public is forced to use them.

Finally, I liked Man of Steel, but there's some truth to this episode of "How It Should Have Ended": more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:48 AM | Comments (588)
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